Toronto City Council has approved a municipal land transfer tax that will be levied on top of the provincial land transfer tax. TREB worked very hard to oppose this tax and commends the efforts of Realtors on this issues. TREB took a strong position to oppose this tax as unfair in principle and refused to compromise. As a direct result of this strong position, City Council was forced to make a number of amendments to the city's original proposal, including rebates for first time buyers, a reduced rate and grandfathering for existing transactions.

The Bank of Canada cut the overnight rate by 25 basis points to 4.25% highlighting the growing downside risks to the inflation outlook due to the global financial market volatility. The Bank said that both CPI inflation and core inflation in October came in below their forecasts and that they would now expect inflation to be lower than their October projection. for the next several months.

The Bank cited increased risks to the outlook for Canadian exports on the prospect of slower US economy (due to the housing market) and cited a tightening in credit conditions globally as increasing the downside risks to their inflation outlook. The Bank highlighted that the currency is trading closer to the 98 US cents assumed in their October forecast having weakened from its highest level. Pressure in financial markets has led to a further tightening in credit conditions. However, strong domestic demand kept the economy operating above its production potential in the third quarter producing residual upside risks to the inflation project.

The most recent press release indicates that policymakers are increasingly nervous about the impact of the global financial market turmoil on the outlook for growth and inflation and sets up for additional easing should these conditions persist in 2008. Our view that Canada's economy, like its US counterpart, is headed for a period of slower growth means that it is likely that the Bank will cut the policy rate again early next year.

Like the BOC, we expect that the aggressive progressive price cutting by Canadian retailers will keep downward pressure on Canada's core inflation rate allowing the Bank to pursue an easier policy stance as the economy navigates through this period of financial market turmoil. To be sure, the strong increase in domestic demand in the third quarter will keep the Bank wary about the risk that household spending will grow rapidly exerting upward pressure on prices related to housing. However the downside risks emanating from the financial market uncertainty, commiserates tightening in credit conditions and weakening US growth outlook seals the case for an additional rate cut in early 2008.